John Arthur Smith, Russell G. Allen challeng to lead Senate District 35

Read a candidate biography on John Arthur SmithRead a candidate biography on Russell G. AllenEditor's note: These are part of an ongoing series of stories the Sun-News will run daily looking at the local races in the upcoming election.

LAS CRUCES - Russell Allen has been active behind the scenes as chairman of the Republican Party for Doña Ana County. Now he is stepping forward to challenge one of the longest-serving members of the Legislature, state Sen. John Arthur Smith.

Smith has served in the Senate since 1989, and is chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee. He fended off a challenge from his left when he defeated Larry Martinez of Lordsburg in the Democratic primary. Because of redistricting, Senate District 35 now stretches into Doña Ana County.

Allen is making his first run for public office. He said his work as party chairman convinced him to run. His goal was to give voters a choice by making sure there was a Republican candidate in every race.

"The opposing party has been in charge of the Legislature for about the last 50 years, and during that time we've seen that the other states around us have far exceeded us on population growth, on wealth," he said.

Both men are business owners: Smith owns an appraisal company in Deming, Allen is chairman of Allen Theaters.

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And both agree on a wide variety of issues.
Smith said that as chairman of the Finance Committee, it often falls to him and the committee he leads to oppose programs he may believe would be beneficial, but that the state can't afford. Unlike the federal government, the state has to balance the budget every year, he said.

"We've had a great recession, I hope the likes that my grandkids will never experience again," he said. "There's not one person out there that hasn't had difficulties with, 'how am I going to be able to pay my bills.' We as a state have been in that position, and I've had the responsibility as the chairman of Senate Finance to say no to a lot of issues that I truly like and would like to be able to support. But when you don't have the money, you don't have the money."

Smith said the state is keeping a close eye on what is happening at the federal level. The sequestration bill, which would make deep cuts to the defense budget, would have a devastating impact on New Mexico, he said. Both candidates agreed that the state economy needs to be less dependent on the federal government.

The reason New Mexico has a gross receipts tax, instead of the more traditional sales tax, is to increase revenue from the federal government, Allen said, adding that 27 percent of the people living in New Mexico are employed by some form of government.

"What it has done is made us unattractive to the private sector," he said. "We've got to try to wean our way off those federal dollars. That's the biggest problem I see with New Mexico. We've got to change our regulations. We've got to change our taxes so we become more attractive to the private sector."

Smith said he has advocating going from a GRT to a sales tax, which he said the state will have to do to ever collect taxes on Internet sales. The state took a step in the right direction this past session when it eliminated the so-called pyramiding taxes, he said.

"I took charge in the pyramiding gross receipts issue. It would not have moved forward if I had not been on board and supported that legislation," Smith said.
Both candidates expressed concern with the costs to the state, should it choose to set up health-care exchanges as part of the Affordable Care Act.

"This is the most challenging issue for the Legislature and also for the governor," Smith said. "We're relying on their commitment when they don't have any money." He said any bill passed would have to be contingent on the federal government sustaining its match level.

Allen said New Mexico is already sixth in the nation in Medicaid spending.

"What we've got to do is get people jobs," he said. "If they have jobs, then guess what, they don't need it."

Allen and Smith both said they were in general support of the education reforms proposed by Gov. Susana Martinez and Education Secretary Hanna Skandera.

"Everybody needs to be graded. We're all evaluated," Allen said. "I like what Secretary Skandera is doing. It's a whole new way of looking at things."
Smith said he broke with his own party when he supported a bill to prohibit those in the country illegally from getting a state driver's license, but heard no complaints from his district, which he said contains a longer stretch of border than any other district in the state.

"My district is a strong supporter of making sure document people have rights in this state, and one is to drive. But they darn sure don't want undocumented people having the same right," he said.

Allen said he was a strong supporter of Spaceport America. The inability to pass a bill this year providing limited liability protection to suppliers is an example of what's wrong with the Legislature, he said.

"The day that went down in flames I was with the director of the spaceport. She said the phone calls stopped. We lost a full year because of that bill," he said. "It's because of things like that and the leadership in the Senate that keeps us from being competitive."